Nickelodeon and KidKraft have partnered to create a line of designer wooden toys, doll furniture, and accessories featuring Dora from the Dora the Explorer series. The new line of products includes a lifelike kitchen and dollhouse, both standing at almost four feet tall.

Dora’s Dollhouse features 13 wooden crafted furniture pieces and colorful artwork to reflect the animated style throughout the Dora the Explorer series. Similar to the dollhouse, the Dora Kitchen is made of wood, includes a removable sink for quick and easy cleaning, convenient storage space under the sink, functional cabinet doors that open, and wooden pegs for cooking accessories

The Dora Kitchen and Dollhouse are available this summer. Additionally, doll furniture and accessories will be introduced to the line later this year.

It can be really difficult to get kids enthusiastic about reading at a young age. When I was young, my mom gave me an enormous, leather-bound book full of fairy tales. Each page was laden with beautiful graphics and trimmed with gold. After having the stories read to me over and over again, I would use the tales and characters as inspiration for playtime, making my Barbie dolls act as Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel.

New specialty toy company Storytime Toys, is making it even easier for kids to incorporate reading into playtime. Kara Dyer and Sara Argue have created a line of toy houses and storybooks based on classic fairy tales. Now, kids can read along to fairy tales including Goldilocks & the Three Bears, Hansel & Gretel, and The Three Little Pigs, while they build a house (or three, in the pigs’ case) that corresponds to each story.

Each house features stunning, hand-painted imagery and comes with furniture and dolls for extended creative play. The pieces of the house can be assembled easily by kids ages 3 to 6. The stories are age-appropriate and will allow kids to associate playtime fun with the concept of reading. [Read more...]

New Products

Jakks Pacific Inc. has secured a licensing agreement with Lafig and Sony Pictures Consumer Products to produce toys and related products based on the Smurfs franchise, including the classic Smurfs brand and the upcoming Smurfs feature film premiering in August 2016. The worldwide master toy agreement includes the rights to produce figures, play sets, plush, [...]

On March 20, Nintendo will launch the Super Mario amiibo—Gold Edition, a gold-colored Mario figure that arrives on the same day as the Mario Party 10 game for the Wii U console. The new gold-colored Mario is compatible with multiple games that support the amiibo line of figures. Mario Party 10 features a new amiibo [...]

Jelly Jam Entertainment has partnered with Kids Preferred to launch The Moodsters, a new line of toys and books designed to teach kids the fundamentals of feelings. The Moodsters consist of five lovable detectives—Coz, Lolly, Snorf, Razzy, and Quigly—who come to the rescue whenever their friends, Zach and Zoey, have a feelings emergency. The stories [...]

The fifth season of TV series The Walking Dead will be accompanied by new The Walking Dead Minimates, from Diamond Select Toys and arriving at Toys “R” Us stores nationwide and toysrus.com in March. The new assortment features characters from the “All Out War” story arc featured in issues No. 115 to 126 of The [...]

Corus Entertainment‘s Nelvana has entered a partnership with Cepia LLC to bring the Zhu Zhu Pets brand back to store shelves, with Nelvana Studio producing a new animated series based upon the property. Nelvana Enterprises will also oversee global merchandising of the brand in conjunction with the distribution of the new series.